I am not a fan of creating vague goals with the new year. They never work for me, and I get discouraged when I didn't accomplish the entire goal. Instead of goals, I have used the "Word of the Year" method and really like how it can be used as a beacon to guide the year in the desired direction.
Our word of the year for 2026 is Integrate. The definition of integrate is combining one thing with another so that they become a whole.
Upon reflection of 2025, I realized that while we were growing in farm size and products, we were simultaneously growing outwards in various directions. By the end of the year, we were exhausted and a bit frazzled. While grateful for the growth and excited about our plans for the future, we knew that we needed to find a way to run this farm business without losing ourselves and our family unit in the process.
I don't claim to have all of the answers, but I do feel that focusing on integrating the farm, the farm business and our family life together will be an improvement for our sanity. In turn, this will result in improved services for our customers.
How are we planning to apply the word integrate into our business plan for 2026?
- Removing products with no interest and/or not making a profit
- At the beginning of 2025, our daughter wanted to grow and sell flowers. As the year progressed, we learned that, while these activities are enjoyable, the process of selling the flowers removed part of the joy for her. Instead of selling flowers at the markets this year, she will focus her flower growing and arrangements for our home enjoyment.
- We are eliminating the portable sawmilling services. While we had interest in this service, trying to schedule the jobs around other activities became an issue. Additionally, resetting the sawmill after every move took valuable time away from home sawmilling work. We hope to have more lumber options in the future with this change in workflow.
- Our son has decided to focus his worm composting portion of the business on the production of worm tea. He will no longer be selling worms or composting bucket systems.
- We have sold all of our Nigerian Dwarf goats. While we (some of us) love the goats, their care and time commitment took too much time away from other projects.
- Combining time at the farmers markets
- We love spending time with our customers; however the long Saturdays spent at the farmers markets can become burdensome to our family. We are working out plans to attend multiple markets on the same day and take off one Saturday a month for our family and farm growth. This is a work in progress, and we will communicate our whereabouts as the year progresses.
- Allow the kids to take charge of their specific projects
- We had a business meeting with the entire family. We discussed the ideas and goals for each family member. It resulted in deeper discussions of ideas and various constraints. We narrowed down our focus and discussed expectations for each child for their various projects.
- P. learned that his CNC signs and other wooden products sold better online than at the markets. He also discovered that our inventory was not consistent. He is designing a production schedule and will focus on developing better online entries.
- P. owns a registered Katahdin sheep flock. These animals are integrated with our larger flock of commercial sheep, but he manages all of the requirements for registration. He hopes to offer registered stock in the future.
- P. has also shown interest in our marketing plans and may work to take over the Tik Tik shop that I started to build in 2025 but simply abandoned.
- E. is working to expand his sales of worm tea and is currently testing new packaging and possible shipping options. We will keep you updated when this is ready.
- E. has also shown interest in selling meat to our customers but wants it to be "his very own". Maintaining records with our current options and keeping them separate from those E. would sell seems too complicated. So, E. is exploring the idea of raising and selling USDA processed meat rabbits. If all goes well, we may be able to offer this to you by the fall of 2026.
- M. wants to expand her farm photography. She will continue to make and sell the cards that our customers have grown to love. She discovered that in order to offer more products, she needs to organize her photography work. Next, she plans to research the option of prints and other items.
- G. has decided to forgo the sales of flowers and crocheted necklaces and bracelets. She will continue creating these items but will do so for enjoyment and gifts only. To earn money, she has decided to focus her efforts on collecting and packaging rabbit pellets. Rabbit pellets are a great fertilizer and a byproduct from their pet rabbits. She hopes to use the money earned to eventually purchase her own horse.
- We had a business meeting with the entire family. We discussed the ideas and goals for each family member. It resulted in deeper discussions of ideas and various constraints. We narrowed down our focus and discussed expectations for each child for their various projects.
- Focus the sale of various products where they were most popular in 2025
- A lot of our craft items sold well online. Our meat and eggs sold better at the markets. We spent valuable time and effort hauling the craft items to the markets when we should have focused more on the online entries. We plan to organize our various products to the locations where they are most desired. So, this means that you may not see all of our items at the market. Don't worry! You can still order them online and have them delivered to a market for easy pick up.
- Increase drop locations and times
- It is no secret that the various interests of our kids keep us very busy. In the spirit of integration, we plan to incorporate more drop locations for our customers as the opportunities present themselves. These may not be regularly scheduled times or locations but will coincide with some of our current school or extra-curricular activities. Who knows? Maybe you can watch an exciting game of soccer while picking up your farm fresh groceries for the week? We will keep you informed of these new drop locations and times through our weekly email and our social media posts.
The beginning of each new year is an exciting time to evaluate the progress of the previous year and make the changes that you would like to see in the upcoming one. We hope that by focusing our efforts on the word Integrate during the 2026 year, we will continue to grow into the farm that you can love and rely upon to provide great products for your family to enjoy.